Each box below is a different W-2 salary you could pay yourself as an employee of your own S-Corp. Edit the amounts to compare how each choice ripples through your taxes and take-home in the table and chart.
Watch out for paying yourself too low a salary. Tax law requires S-Corp owners to pay themselves a reasonable wage. So while a smaller salary tends to lower your overall tax bill, it can raise your compliance risk. ☎ Give us a call so we can do this exercise together.
The line is your estimated total federal tax at every possible salary (lower is better). Your three options are the dots, and the orange one keeps the most. The vertical scale is zoomed in so even small differences are easy to spot.
This modeler is a simplified illustration, not tax advice or a tax projection. It accounts for only a few of the largest federal variables (income tax brackets, FICA/payroll tax, and the §199A QBI deduction), and deliberately rounds figures to the nearest $100. It ignores state and local income tax, PTET, self-employment nuances, retirement and health contributions, credits, NIIT, AMT, itemized deductions, phase-outs, entity-level details, and the specific facts of your situation. Real results will differ, often significantly.
Do not rely on these numbers for your own tax planning or filing. They exist only to help you understand the relationship between owner salary and net-income (distribution) tax planning. For real numbers built around your business, talk with Jasper Accountancy.
Figures based on tax year 2026 (IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32; OBBBA) · Federal only · © Jasper Accountancy, Accounting for MSP's
